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Third of Brits cutting down on meat

Menus around the country could start placing more of an emphasis on veg and fish over the next few months as new figures have revealed that Brits are cutting down on the amount of meat in their diets.

Around one in three (29 per cent) Brits say they have reduced their meat intake in the past year, with 34 per cent of women doing so as well as 23 per cent of men.

On top of this, the NatCen’s British Social Attitudes survey found that a further nine per cent were considering either reducing their meat consumption or cutting it out of their diet altogether.

In total, 44 per cent of the population either do not eat meat, have reduced their intake or are considering doing so. Older people seemed more likely to change their eating habits with 39 per cent of 65 to 79 year-olds eating less meat compared to 19 per cent of 18 to 24 year-olds.

Health benefits were the most commonly cited reason (58 per cent) for why people changed their diets, while 21 per cent of people wanted to save money, 20 per cent were concerned about animal welfare, 19 per cent were worried about food safety in relation to meat, and 11 per cent had environmental concerns.

Analysing the stats, Ian Simpson, Senior Researcher at NatCen Social Research, said: “Many people in Britain are clearly concerned about eating too much meat and the primary driver of this concern appears to be concerns about health.

He added: “Since we collected the data, the World Health Organisation has classified processed meat as carcinogenic, suggesting we may see even more people cutting down on meat in the future.”

As well as vegetarian dishes, it appears that more people working in Chefs jobs across the country are also creating Oriental dishes, after new figures showed that the number of Chinese, Thai and Japanese restaurants in the UK has grown by 18 per cent in the past five years. The report from Wing Yip claimed there are now more than 4,000 restaurants serving such food in the UK.